Drawing on the case of business school rankings, we study how institutions are
maintained and remain persistent despite their contested nature. We argue that rankings
as institutions can be maintained through subtle disciplinary practices that freeze power
relations in recipient organizations. Our analysis rests on a Foucauldian understanding
of control emphasizing that rankings discipline (1) by enhancing the visibility of
individuals’ performance, (2) by defining ‘normal’ behavior, and (3) by shaping how
people understand themselves and the world around them. We show that these three
disciplining effects support rankings’ durability, reproducibility, and communicability
enhancing their overall stability and diffusion. Our arguments demonstrate that
rankings’ relevance and impact is not entirely based on the legitimacy they are able to
offer to ranked schools. Rather rankings impel a variety of disciplinary effects within
business schools which help to stabilize and diffuse the institution.

New accounting standards require ¯rms to expense the costs of option-based compensation (OBC), but the associated valuations o®er many challenges for ¯rms. Earlier research has documented that ¯rms in the U.S. generally underreport the values of OBC by manipulating the inputs used for valuation purposes. This paper examines the values of OBC disclosed by Danish ¯rms. The results suggest that ¯rms experi ence some di±culties in valuing OBC, but interestingly, there is no clear evidence of deliberate underreporting. For example, there is no evidence that ¯rms use manipulated values for the Black-Scholes parameters in their valuations. Furthermore, ¯rms determine the expected time to maturity in a way that is generally consistent with the guidelines provided by the new accounting standards. The ¯ndings di®er from those of the U.S., but is consistent with the more limited use of OBC and the lower level of attention paid to these values in Denmark. However, the di®erences can also be due to the fact that several Danish ¯rms do not provide the information required regarding their OBC, which is clearly a very e®ective way of hiding the true values.

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The aim of discourse analysis is to reveal the ontological and epistemological premises which are
embedded in language, and which allows a statement to be understood as rational or interpreted as
meaningful. Discourse analysis investigates whether – in statements or texts - it is possible to
establish any regularity in the objects which are discussed; the subjects designated as actors; the
causal relations claimed to exist between objects (explanans) and subjects (explanadum); but also
the expected outcome of subjects trying to influence objects; the goal of their action; and finally the
time dimension by which these relations are framed. Discourses thus comprise the underlying
conditions for a statement to be interpreted as meaningful and rational. At the same time, discourse
analysis is the study of rationality and how it is expressed in a particular historical context.
Discourse analysis is part of the Constructivist (or Social Constructivist) approach within the
humanities and social sciences. It assumes that basic assumptions with regard to being, self and the
world are constructed by individuals living in a historical and cultural context which is produced
and reproduced by their speech acts.

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On the social context of text and knowledge production in the workplace

Pogner, Karl-Heinz(København, 2005)

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Abstract:

This paper aims at giving a more detailed description and discussion of two concepts of "community" developed in the research areas of text production/ writing and social learning / information management / knowledge sharing and comparing them with each other. The purpose of this theoretical exer-cise is to determine the degree to which the concepts of discourse commu-nity and community of practice are suitable for investigating the social and organizational context of text and knowledge production. Finally, the paper examines the explanatory value of the two concepts for analyzing text and knowledge production at different Danish workplaces (a consulting engi-neering company, a university department and a bank) and discusses their significance in the context of co-located as well as geographically distrib-uted communities.

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This paper is based on an explorative case study of all.department e-mails that were sent on the Intranet of a Danish university department. Following a social constructionist approach, our analysis assumes that language use shapes relations, identities, and representations. We thus investigate which social relations are expressed and constructed in the e-mail discourse and how the organizational world of the department is represented in the all.department e-mails. Our analyses of the e-mails show that the managerial voices are dominant as well as the perception of e-mail communication as a tool of information transmission. However, a few e-mails sent by employees without specific organizational functions differ significantly from the "managerial" mails. In these mails employee voices articulate a latent and unfulfilled need for a community and a forum for dialogue. The usage of the all.department e-mail communication is also related to the ongoing change of managing university departments in Denmark.

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The present study is based on a large scale panel survey and uses the German market for profiling
the consumer of ecological margarine. We analyze how this consumer differs from the mainstream
consumer. Consumers of ecological margarine are categorized as light- , medium-, heavy-users and
loyalists. Also, we explore why some consumers - when being asked - intend to buy ecological
margarine but do not purchase the product (and vice versa). A cluster analysis of non-purchasers of
ecological margarine shows at least one sizeable cluster of non-purchasers possess views on ecostatements
that are more eco-prone than loyal purchasers of eco-margarine. Several other interesting
findings are revealed. Implications for promotion of ecological margarine are discussed (not in the
present draft but at the conference).